Why We Travel – By Philip Petraglia

This may not be as obvious as the title suggests! It seems like there are a million reasons why people travel. My wife and I have done a fair amount of travelling since marrying back in 2000, and it seems like the older we get the more our desire to visit countries that differ from Canada increases. Here then are a few questions for readers to ponder: Do we travel to visit museums, cultural landmarks, and buildings with great architecture? Is it to experience other cultures? Maybe it’s to lie on a warm beach or to escape the Canadian winter. And how do we experience other cultures? Is it by walking the streets, tasting the local cuisine, or attending religious services? Do we travel with the aim of meeting people or do we keep a comfortable and safe distance? Do we study the country’s history before arriving or do we just assure ourselves of the country’s safeness? What motivates us to visit a particular country? Is there an emotional attachment? Perhaps we expect to experience some kind of emotion that we can’t achieve at “home”. I ask these questions because I’m sure that every individual has his or her own answer.

I first experienced travel as a young thirteen year old kid when his parents decided to take the family back to the old country, Italy to be more precise. You’re born in a country like Canada, into an immigrant family, and identity issues emerge which in my case were always a source of intellectual stimulation rather than any source of anxiety. It made my experience richer and going back for the first time to see where it all started was exciting. Everything about Italy was exotic, from the food to the architecture to the people. What I remember most, though, were the sounds. It was loud, and the language was different. We landed in Rome in August of 1972, and I remember thinking how cool it was to be in a country where people belonged to the same ethnic group as my family did. And of course the history!

We travelled from Rome to Salerno and didn’t see much in terms of historical sights but this was irrelevant to me. I was amazed by the lack of greenness. Everything seemed dry and brown. Beautiful! Why travel to a country that looks exactly the same as the one you just left? We arrived in Salerno, a bustling city, in fact one of Italy’s largest port cities, and what I saw and heard was the hustle and bustle of a busy urban center, and the smell of the Tyrrhenian Sea. We could see and hear the waves crashing against the beach. You wouldn’t want to swim in it, but I knew then that I would one day spend more time walking on the beach than actually swimming in it, which my wife and I do every other year when we visit Oregon’s spectacular beaches. But the best was yet to come. After visiting with my aunt and her family, we drove to Piaggine, our ancestral village, a small town tucked away in the mountains, about 50 kilometers from Paestum where three Greek temples and a Roman forum still stand. It was pure adventure once we left the highway and took a narrow road that traversed through villages built during the Middle Ages if not earlier. Hill top villages, small fiat cars competing with mules, old ladies dressed in black, olive groves, some sheep; these were villages Fellini would have appreciated. Arriving in Piaggine around 10.00 p.m., I felt like I had been transported to some ancient past. Our village has a population of fifteen hundred but had a lot more before many of our fellow villagers left for the Americas where they would settle in legendary places like the Bronx, Astoria, and East Harlem. I didn’t know all this when I arrived in the summer of 1972, but the journalist in me spent the summer asking a million questions to anyone who would listen. My point is that it’s great to visit a place where you’re not a tourist. Suddenly there’s a connection. Some of us hyphenated citizens enjoy this luxury.

We spent three weeks in Piaggine. I awoke in the morning to hear a mule going up the street; could anything be more foreign to a teenager born and raised in a Canadian metropolis with two million people? The other thing that immediately struck me was seeing people walk! They could be seen walking in the piazza, up the street, over to the soccer field, the local café, the next village; there were endless reasons for people to walk in a town where everything was in walking distance. A life-long affinity for urban environments free of cars and trucks was born. This perhaps explains my affection for Venice and Lucca. But you need to travel to discover that you even have this affinity. The food was also terrific but the bread was a challenge. They don’t do breakfasts like in Canada and buying a soda like coca cola seemed like a big deal. No hamburgers or junk food; what an environment!

Everything described above took place in 1972. The village has changed since then and one can live there with all of the amenities one enjoys in big cities. Back in 1972 they had water issues and unheated homes. We were back in Piaggine five years ago and those problems have been solved. But the old people are gone. It’s strange to visit a place full of memories but with uncles and aunts gone. Thankfully, I still have an aunt and a cousin along with his family living there.

In the end, we travel for all sorts of reasons but the travelling that is the most rewarding is the one that takes us to a place where we feel we belong or that we have some connection to. For me it was my ancestral homeland. For someone in love with Charles Dickens it might be a visit to East London, for a devout Muslim, Mecca, for a diehard baseball fan, Cooperstown. But ideally, the reader will hopefully have had the experience that I enjoyed in 1972.

In a perfect trip one experiences all the senses that evolution has given us. That first trip to Italy led me to Paestum where three Greek Temples still stand as monuments to Greek history. This helped stir my love of history which continues till this day. And the beaches nearby were sublime even if there wasn’t any boardwalk. We came back to Canada and everything seemed incredibly green! Even autumn had arrived even though it was only the first week of September. This was before global change.

I was home but a different person. My advice to people with children: Travel with your teenage children if you can. And travel to a real place. Forget Disneyland, Cancun, cruises with endless buffets. Take them instead to a place like Piaggine and get your children to experience all their senses! There’s only so much stuff you can buy them. What they’ll remember is that exotic trip where they experienced a world destined to disappear, and hopefully, some things about themselves.

The Challenge Facing the Middle East – By Philip Petraglia

Cradle of three great religions, namely, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, the Middle East remains the world’s most volatile region. It’s also a region where rapid change is occurring but where little progress is being made in attaining either prosperity or democracy. What went wrong? Why can’t the countries in the Middle East become more like the BRIC countries? Is there something about contemporary Middle Eastern culture that sets it apart from its Asian counterparts in a negative way when it comes to achieving prosperity and democracy? Asia was as poor as the Middle East at the end of the Second World War. Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong: all states that at one time were as poor and undemocratic as its counterparts in the Middle East. True, China remains undemocratic, but at least it’s becoming increasingly prosperous. All countries have problems, including internal divisions, but those we see in the Middle East seem more intense, insurmountable and terrifying. Simply put, there seems to be a level of extremism and conservatism that is simply not seen elsewhere, at least not to the same extreme degree. Sons succeed fathers as rulers, and military men succeed other former military men as Presidents.

The Middle East is a large territory, comprising some eighteen countries. These countries are divided by religion, ethnicity, language, and tribalism. Governments are seen as serving sectarian interests. Let’s look at some key players to see where the problems lie. These countries vary in size but religious divisions seem to pop up everywhere. Bahrain is a good example. With a population of less than 1.5 million, this Arab state is divided between Shias and Sunnis, the two main branches of Islam. The country is two thirds Shia, but ruled by a Sunni Monarch. Sunnis control the government, the army, the police, and the law courts. In 2011 the Shia majority rebelled but this only led to more oppression. Lebanon is another small Arab country, with a population of slightly less than 5 million. Divided between, Shias, Sunnis, and Christians, this country has seen its share of bloody civil wars going back to 1975. Over 100,000 civilians have been killed since 1975 and thousands more displaced. Squeezed between Syria and Israel, Lebanon remains a beautiful country in a rough neighbourhood. Yemen is yet another Arab state torn by sectarian strife. Not only is it divided almost evenly between Shias and Sunnis, it’s also divided along regional and tribal lines. With a population of slightly over 20 million, this Arab state has seen civil wars, uprisings, and attempts by the south to secede. It’s also a part of the Arabian Peninsula where terrorist groups have found refuge. And then of course there’s Syria where Sunnis and Alawites fight for control of the country. Syria is 60% Sunni but the Alawites control the government and the army despite comprising only 12% of the population. The civil war that started in 2011 has taken over 100,000 lives and displaced over 4 million citizens. Lastly, there’s the case of Saudi Arabia, a nation divided between Shias and Sunnis. Shias make up only 15% of the population but are located in the country’s oil producing region and many feel discriminated against by the Sunni majority.

But divisions also exist along ethnic lines. Jordan is a case in point. With a population of slightly more than 6 million, this Arab state is divided along ethnic rather than religious lines. Palestinians, many of whom arrived as refugees, make up more than half population, but the rulers come from the country’s ethnic minority and are hesitant to give the majority the right to vote. Jordan is the most pro-western and secular state in the region, but power remains firmly in the hands of a constitutional monarch who holds vast executive and legislative powers. Iraq’s ethnic and religious divisions go even deeper. This predominantly Arab country is divided along both religious and ethnic lines. With a population of slightly more than 31 million, Iraq is two thirds Shia and one third Sunni, but complicating this scenario is the Kurdish majority in the north of the country. Kurds are Sunnis but have their own culture which includes speaking Kurdish rather than Arabic. In short, the Kurds are a people with another language and culture seeking independence from an Arab country.

A third division facing this region is with regard to religious extremism. We see it in Syria where some of the rebels have ties to terrorist groups seeking to establish an Islamic Republic. But we also see it in Saudi Arabia where a form of conservative Islam known as Wahhabism is practiced. Known also as Salafism, this branch of Sunni Islam also has adherents in Egypt and other Arab countries where religious extremism is growing. The situation in Egypt is especially worrying. The largest of the Arab states with a population of slightly more than 80 million people, Egyptians just voted in a new constitution. Unfortunately less than 40% of qualified voters bothered to show up. This country saw the Muslim Brotherhood, led by Mohammed Morsi, win the 2012 election with slightly more than half the vote. Morsi’s term in office would last all of one year, and he would eventually be removed and imprisoned by the army in 2013 for abusing his powers. In the end, Egypt remains divided between those hoping to create a modern and secular state and those seeking to create a society heavily influenced by religious values. This worries not only women’s groups but also the country’s Christian minority who make up 10% of the population. Egypt is in many ways different from Arab states in that the army has always had a heavy hand in running both the country’s political institutions and the economy. This has helped fuel support for the Muslim Brotherhood which was recently outlawed as a terrorist organization.

So far we’ve been talking about predominantly Arab states. Let’s look at the non-Arab states in the region starting with Iran. A predominantly Persian state where Farsi rather than Arabic is spoken by the majority, Iran is a predominantly Shia state with close to 80 million people. It’s also the biggest Shia state in the world. Iran supports the Shia community in Lebanon through Hezbollah, maintains friendly relations with the Shia dominated government in Iraq, and is currently aiding the Alawite (an off shoot of the Shia branch of Islam) regime in Syria. The nation has its own ethnic religious minorities, but the division in Iran is more along degrees of religious adherence. On the one hand, many young people would prefer to live in a more secular state, while the older generation continue adhering to more traditional values.

Turkey is another important non-Arab player in the region, with a population of 75 million. 75% of the population is Turkish, but close to 15% of the population is Kurdish, most of whom live in the east and southeast regions. Many Kurds would like to secede from Turkey and set up a separate state along with Kurds on the Iraqi side of the border. But Turkey’s biggest problem seems to lie with the current government, led by Prime Minister RecepTayip Erdogan of the Conservative Justice and Development Party. Turkey is constitutionally a secular state but many accuse Erdogan of waging a campaign against the country’s secular values, including freedom of speech, especially against journalists.

Of course no discussion about the Middle East can end without talking about Israel and the Palestinian issue. Israel continues to be both a democracy and a predominantly Jewish state. Jews make up 75% of the population, but Arabs make up 20% and have a higher birth rate. Add the Gaza strip and the West Bank, and Arabs are half the population. Arabs will likely constitute a majority in Israel by the end of this century unless Israel gives up the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Most agree that peace will only come once a Palestinian state is eventually created in these two territories, but most experts also agree that Israel has serious security concerns that first have to be met. In any case, the situation looks bleak even with John Kerry’s courageous efforts to get the two sides talking to one another.

The issues facing the region seem insurmountable. The issues described above also raise emotions to frightening levels. The division between the two main branches of Islam, that is, between Shias and Sunnis, resembles the conflict that once existed in Christianity between Catholics and Protestants. Only time will tell whether Middle Eastern societies are able to create national identities based on citizenship rather than religious, tribal, or ethnic affiliations. Perhaps federalism can be used to provide minorities with some form of autonomy. But the most important hurdle will be to overcome sectarian divisions by creating new national identities based on secular and modern values. Given the richness and greatness of Middle Eastern Civilization where tolerance for different faiths and communities once reigned, this goal should be achievable, but only if Middle Easterners come to expect more from their rulers and ultimately, from themselves. No outside intervention can ever accomplish the creation of a more pluralistic society for them.

What the World Can Learn From America – By Philip Petraglia

In the preceding blog we discussed some of the more problematic aspects of American society that the world should seek to avoid. Let’s now look at some of the more positive aspects of American society starting with its form of government. A federal system with checks and balances, the U.S. government is divided into three branches: the Executive (President); Legislative (Congress), and Judiciary. Known as division of powers, this system makes certain that no one branch of government assumes dictatorial or arbitrary powers. The president signs laws into power but Congress is responsible for passing them. The Court then makes certain the government is not stepping outside its jurisdiction or infringing the rights and liberties of citizens. This federal model is one that many developing countries in the Third World would benefit from, especially for countries divided along racial, ethnic, or religious lines.

Rule of Law. America’s legal system is based on Common Law as opposed to a Civil Law system where laws are codified. Most Latin American and European countries have a civil law system. Both systems work well. But let’s look at the American model. Many would argue that America has become a litigious society. This is probably true, but the reality remains that the Rule of Law is strong and does not favour the rich or certain groups as some on the left might argue. It remains a country with an independent judiciary where all are equal before the law. This is also true for Canadians and Europeans. But the U.S. model is impressive because the courts have not hesitated to curtail governmental powers when necessary to preserve human liberty. Of course there have been bad decisions like Citizens United, but in general the record has been a courageous one. Lastly, the U.S. Constitution remains probably the most important and effective written constitution ever conceived and put into practice. Short and concise, it has allowed the country to develop into a free and prosperous society. Yes, there were some misinterpretations along the way by the U.S. Supreme Court, such as considering corporations to be individuals, but democracies don’t excel at perfection!

Diversity. No country in the West is as diverse as the U.S. in terms of welcoming as many immigrants as it does. Caucasians now make up 69% of the population, down from 80% only a few decades ago. America is destined to become the first majority minority country in the West by the end of the 21st century, followed possibly by Canada. America is the kind of country where the son of a Kenyan immigrant can become president even with a name like Barack Obama! It’s unthinkable to even think that a British citizen of Indian decent could become Prime Minister of Great Britain, or a French citizen of Algerian heritage president of the French Republic, or a German of Turkish decent chancellor of Germany. Hopefully this will change by the end of this decade.

Science and Technology. Public schools may have deteriorated but America’s universities remain the most coveted by students and researchers around the world. U.S. universities have the money and the ability to attract foreign students and professors, not to mention the luxury of operating in an economy that encourages and rewards technological start-ups. Name it: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Intel: all high tech companies conceived and started in the U.S. The American economy innovates like no other. The U.S. economy has shifted from a brick and mortar economy to an economy based on knowledge and services. The challenge will be to improve the performance of high school students in the crucial areas of math and science. The other major challenge is to somehow expand the economy so that citizens without strong educational skills have their place.

Foreign Affairs. The U.S. wields immensely more power than any other western state. With this power comes responsibility which it doesn’t always understand or exercise. Nevertheless, U.S. foreign policy serves to keep the sea lanes open, permitting international trade to flow in an unobstructed matter. Think for example of Canadian grain sailing through the Indian Ocean or the China Sea. All made possible by Uncle Sam’s largesse! The U.S. also keeps emerging authoritarian states like China from bullying its neighbours in Asia. Expect the South Koreans, Japanese, and even Vietnamese to look to America for security against Chinese territorial encroachment, not to mention geo-political influence. Europe, meanwhile, continues to have in America a staunch ally against a Russian state that seems intent on reclaiming its past glory.

Progressive Legislation. The United States has been a sovereign state since gaining independence from Great Britain in 1776. It goes without saying that both the federal government and states governments have passed some bad laws. But America also has, legislatively speaking, a pioneering record when it comes to passing laws protecting the environment, promoting civil rights, and breaking up large commercial monopolies. One has only to think of the Clean Air Act (1963), Clean Water Act (passed in 1972 & signed into law by President Nixon), Civil Rights Act of 1964 (outlawing racial, ethnic, & religious discrimination, as well as discrimination against women), Voting Rights Act of 1965 (prohibition of discrimination in voting), Immigration & Nationality Act of 1965 (opening the country to non-European immigrants), Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890), and Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as examples of progressive legislation aimed at bettering the lives of citizens living in the Republic. Cynics point to other progressive laws that remain to be passed. But no society can claim to be perfect.

The Arts. From cinema to music, American society remains an inspiration for the rest of the world. Think Jazz, the Blues, Rock and Roll, Orson Wells, Martin Scorsese, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, the list is endless. No society has as much artistic talent in so many varied fields as the U.S. does. Perhaps this is because America is at its core an immigrant society where liberty is praised before all else. It remains an individualistic society and while this certainly brings shortcomings, the flip side is that individuals feel free to express themselves regardless of how society responds.

In conclusion, America is famously divided between red states (Republican) and blue states (Democratic). In many ways the blue states are very much like the rest of the West, that is to say, either moderate or socially liberal. These blue states are growing in number thanks to African-Americans and immigrants like Hispanics, who believe there’s a positive role for government to play in the lives of its citizens. You don’t find many of these people in the Tea Party. This means that America may by the end of this century come to resemble the rest of the world more than the other way around. And in a best case scenario, America adopts Canadian and European social policies, especially with regard to health care, while the rest of the West adopts America’s notion of liberty and entrepreneurial spirit.

How America Differs From the West – By Philip Petraglia

As we begin a new year a question we may want to ask ourselves is how the U.S. differs from the rest of the Western World, whether in regard to Europe, Japan, or Canada. The United States isn’t a country that can be ignored, and how well it does will to a large degree determine how the rest of the world fairs whether in regard to economic prosperity, peace, or global warming.

Let’s start with the basics. America is the third largest country in the world, surpassed only by Russia and Canada. But unlike these two countries, the U.S. has a fascinating geography that no other country possesses. From glaciers in Alaska, to deserts in Arizona, prairie lands in the Midwest, swamplands in Florida, pine forests in the southeast and maple forests in the northeast, America has geographical variety that the rest of the world can only marvel at. Thanks to the Westward Expansion, Louisiana Purchase, Mexican-American War, and wise purchase of Alaska from the Russians for a pittance, we get an extraordinary country that one can spend a lifetime exploring. It’s sheer size and beauty has led to the creation of numerous national and state parks, all started by President Theodore Roosevelt in the early part of the 20th century, a great and courageous visionary who had the foresight to put beauty and conservation before profits at a time when most citizens had never heard of words like conservation and preservation. But America is also geographically fortunate in another way. Its border to the north with Canada makes it the world’s longest unprotected border in the world. While the situation to the south with Mexico presents something of a challenge because of illegal immigration, America has historically had little to worry about in terms of any lasting invasion from its southern neighbour. Lastly, with a population of close to 320 million people, the U.S. is by far the most populous country in the West. Nevertheless, its population density is relatively low, especially with regard to countries like Japan, Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Let’s now talk about how America differs from the rest of the world, especially the West. Let’s start with the more problematic aspects. We’ll talk about how the world can learn from America in next week’s blog.

Consumption. America consumes more than any other country in the world. China will one day surpass it, but America will likely continue to consume more goods and services on a per capita basis than any other country, at least until the end of this century. Call it the American way of life, a phenomenon that started in the 1950s. The only country in the West that comes close to this lifestyle is Canada. America’s appetite for consumption makes it the world’s greatest consumer of energy, thus making it the world’s greatest contributor to global warming. The frightening scenario is that many in the emerging world have bought into the American lifestyle, something which could raise energy consumption to an unsustainable level.

Food. Americans are by far the greatest consumers of junk and processed food, whether in regard to hamburgers, soda pop, or bad pizza. American society is the most obese in the world, bringing with it serious health issues like diabetes and coronary diseases. This is unfortunate not only for Americans but also for the rest of the world, whether in the West, in countries like France where McDonalds seems to be making inroads, or in developing countries like India, where obesity is now a new phenomenon. The only country in the West that even comes remotely close to having this sort of self-induced problem is, yes, you guessed it, Canada.

Suburbia. America not only invented the concept of suburban living as we understand it, they also perfected it, creating car-oriented neighbourhoods dotted with cookie cutter homes. All this home construction in the outskirts of cities has come at an environmental cost, but people do buy them for a reason. These quiet and low density neighbourhoods provide citizens with spacious homes and a decent backyard. The negative sides are the long commutes and loss of green space. Most major cities in the West are experiencing the suburban phenomenon, but Canada is the only country that comes as close to the U.S. model, probably due to the nation’s sheer size and availability of land. But like American cities, Canadian cities now face horrendous traffic congestion during rush hour.

Violence. America is by far the most violent country in the West. There’s quite a bit of irony in this. Japan was a militaristic society up until the end of the Second World War, and as for Europeans, they found numerous reasons to slaughter one another on a massive scale, right up till Hitler’s surrender. America too has a violent past. The country was, after all, not only born out of noble ideas but also from a necessary but violent revolution. Add slavery, violence against Native Americans as the country expanded westwards, a brutal Civil War, wars in Vietnam and Korea, and we get an America that was in many ways as violent as the rest of the West. But something happened in the post war years once America assumed world dominance. The U.S remained a country marred in violence. To take one example, thousands are murdered every year, whether through gun violence or random killings. The numbers are thankfully down, so there’s hope for the future. But America is the only country in the West where citizens have the constitutional right to carry firearms. It also remains the only country in the West with the death penalty. And lastly, America incarcerates more people than any other country in the West, even on a per capita basis. In this way at least, it has more in common with countries like Russia and China than it does with its allies in the West.

Income Disparity. Most countries in the West have income disparity but the gap is greatest in the U.S., and unfortunately the situation is only getting worse. Call it Wall Street greed, bad tax policies, but here’s a sad fact: 20% of Americans own 80% of the wealth in the country. Contrast this with the Scandinavian countries where income is equally distributed (relatively speaking), and where both the economy and the middle class seems to be thriving.

Religion. By religion is meant the bible pounding, fire branding type where the belief in God is pursued in a literal and dogmatic manner. This is not the sort of interpretation ascribed to by most Americans, but there’s a size able minority, especially in the bible states, where folks sill believe in fire and damnation. More attend church in America than in any European country, though the numbers are dropping. The fact is that what was once called Christian Europe has become overwhelmingly secular. The churches are empty on Sundays and most Europeans are clueless as to the teachings of the Bible. Most Europeans would also ascribe to Darwin’s view of how the world was created, whereas in the United States local school boards still attempt to teach creationism in local schools.

Gay Rights. There seems to be no more hot-item issue than gay rights. This is something relatively unheard of in Europe, except for the occasional anti-gay march as recently occurred in France with regard to same-sex marriage. America, in contrast, remains divided between liberal and socially conservative states, with some states allowing for same-sex marriages and others maintaining outright prohibition.

The Role of Government. No country in the western world has as many anti- government citizens as the United States does. Many U.S. citizens belong to the Tea Party and believe that government has simply become too big. This is not a recent phenomenon. It goes back to Barry Goldwater’s run for the Presidency in the sixties, and was further echoed by President Regan in the eighties, though he in fact increased the size of government. The point is that neither Canadians nor Europeans really believe that you can have a healthy and prosperous society without some government involvement.

Health Care. Most countries in the West have universal access to health care for its citizens. Canada is a good example. A single payer system assures that everyone is covered. The U.S. has attempted to make sure that everyone is covered through the Affordable Health Care Act. But the U.S. system remains the only one in the West where health care is provided by the private sector to the degree that it is. The irony is the U.S. government spends more on health care on a per capita basis than any other country. In the end, the American system for providing health care is simply inefficient, thanks to endless paper work, middle men, and costly litigation. The real winners: the insurance providers.

Abortion Issue. Roe v. Wade was rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972. This seminal decision guarantees women certain abortion rights. Regardless of whether one agrees with decision, two things stand out. The first is that it remains controversial. We see this in the states’ continuous attempts to put all sorts of practical limitations to this right. Secondly, a woman’s right to an abortion is, in contrast, no longer an issue in most of the West. The fact it remains so controversial in America shows just how divided the nation remains on social issues. Europe, in contrast, has clearly taken a more liberal road, whether on gay issues or abortion.

In conclusion, America faces certain internal divisions which are absent in Canada, Japan, and Europe. These countries also face internal divisions, but they do not seem to be based on social issues, at least not to the same degree.